10 secrets for career success with mentoring, from 3 top women bankers

November 8, 2022 5:00 PM

Left to right, Ernie Johannson of BMO, Ellen Patterson of Wells Fargo, Titi Cole of Citi and Chana Schoenberger of American Banker, at the 20th annual Most Powerful Women in Banking conference.

Nearly two decades ago, in 2004, Titi Cole began her banking career as a new executive at BMO transitioning from the management consulting world. She was assigned an executive coach whose advice as a mentor, she said, truly changed her life and has stayed with her ever since.

"This one is funny," Cole said, in a panel at American Banker's Most Powerful Women in Banking conference last month. "She was like, you need to exercise more."

The room of bankers laughed. "I was like, physically exercise more?" Cole said. "What are you talking about? She's like, you have too much energy."

The coach filmed Cole and told her that her teammates felt she had come off as "challenging" and "a little chaotic" because of her energy levels, which made it hard for them to follow her. She encouraged Cole to develop a daily morning exercise habit that has since helped her moderate her energy levels, and "be more intentional" in her interactions.

"That was a piece of feedback from a mentor who had observed me, and gotten feedback about how I was interacting with my team," Cole said, reflecting that mentors who are willing to offer personalized and honest feedback can have a long-lasting influence. "And that changed my life." From then on, Cole said, she had exercised just about every day. "It also changed my personal relationships, which my husband can attest to," she joked. "I do so much better when I've got my exercise in the morning."

Cole is now CEO of legacy franchises at Citi. This year, American Banker ranked her among the Most Powerful Women in Banking.

Female financial service leaders extol the value of mentorship

Mentors have long been a buzzword when it comes to advancing one's career, and giving back as a mentor is equally important to many leaders, especially women in finance who continue to be underrepresented. Only 23.5% of CFPs are women, as of this year, and it's a number that barely changed despite the passage of nearly two decades. In banking, a McKinsey report from last October found that women comprise 53% of the entry-level workforce but fill less than a third of SVP and C-suite roles. Women of color, including Black, Latina, and Asian professionals, struggled most with promotion, as they made up one quarter of the entry-level workforce but only one in 20 had made it to the C-suite, the study found.

But what does the journey to success with mentors and mentoring look like for women, in practice? Everything from watching table pounders, to kicking pants, to Formula 1, it turns out.

Cole was joined onstage by Ellen Patterson, general counsel of Wells Fargo, and Erminia "Ernie" Johannson, group head of North American personal and business banking at BMO Financial Group, who swapped tales and tips with her on being mentors and mentoring others. Patterson is a former winner of the Most Powerful Women to Watch awards, and Johannson is an honoree on the Most Powerful Women in Banking list this year. Chana Schoenberger, editor-in-chief of American Banker, moderated.

Read below for more practical career advice from their conversation.

To view this year's list of the Most Powerful Women in Banking, click here. For the Most Powerful Women in Finance, click here. For our list of the Most Powerful Women to Watch, click here.

Seek and give specific, honest advice

Some of the most valuable feedback can be "the things we don't want to hear," Cole said. "When I was stuck, or indecisive, or fearful, they always pushed me to embrace changes, get out of my comfort zone," she said of past mentors. "So as I think about now as a mentor to others, those are the same things that I try to do."

Patterson agreed. "I think the things that were most consistent were being honest. So whether it's honest feedback, or just honest answers, to how would you approach this."

She added that mentees seeking feedback should also make their ask specific. "Rather than, what do you think about me," she said, a mentee could buttonhole someone to ask: "What do you think about how I approached this problem? Or what do you think about how that interaction went?" These smaller moments of asking for help, she said, can sometimes develop into something more.

'Watch for style'

"I consider myself still being mentored and I actively look for it," Patterson said. One thing she likes to do is "just watch for style."

Patterson worked earlier in her career as a mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, according to her bio. She wanted to make partner, but was dismayed by the aggressive style of the men in senior leadership, to whom she couldn't relate. "I don't know if I'm going to go in, and pound the table," she thought at the time.

A peer at her law firm, who was one or two years older than her, told Patterson to keep her eyes peeled for other, more low-key personalities she could model herself on. "Why don't you watch a little more, and watch for the little things that are effective in other people," she recalled him telling her. "And maybe you'll notice that not everybody pounds the table."

Patterson was relieved to see that her mentor-peer was right. "So I made partner at the law firm," she said. "I then developed my own style, which was definitely not pounding the table." She has since risen up through the ranks of corporate lawyers at TD Bank and moved over to Wells Fargo, where she leads over 1,300 legal employees and oversees the bank's attempts to clean up its regulatory woes.

Find 'safe havens'

"As leaders rise up in the organization, people tend to avoid you," Johannson said, adding that it can get harder to find a mentor. "It can be a little intimidating, to mentor someone who's in a senior role. But every person needs it."

Johannson started her career in marketing, moved into credit cards and retail banking at CIBC in Canada, and worked for Fidelity before rising up the ranks at BMO Financial Group. She is now leading the bank's U.S. expansion by organizing its pending acquisition of Bank of the West, and she manages a team of 19,000.

Today, she continues to prioritize finding "my couple of safe havens," trusted individuals "that I go to when I just need to check in."

Sometimes this means keeping up with somebody from a past job, the panelists said, or putting in the effort to court mentors outside of one's organization — or being open to support from unexpected connections, "surprise mentorship," as Johannson called it.

"Some of my most impactful mentors, we never actually worked together. Or in some cases we worked together very briefly, and then things changed," Cole said. "I always tell people, it's a small world, an even smaller industry. Relationships matter. And in some cases, when you're no longer in the same organization, it might actually be easier, because you still have industry issues to talk through."

"When I was considering making my move towards Wells Fargo, I reached out to somebody who I would consider a sponsor in a prior organization," Patterson said. "I just knew I can have the conversation a little more honestly. And really think through what are the pros and cons of this."

Give a 'kick in the pants'

Johannson said mentors had been crucial to helping her attain milestones twice in her career, when she had been happy in a familiar job but had to decide if a new opportunity was worth taking. Her initial reaction to such opportunities was concern that they would take her away from carrying out plans she wanted to execute in her current position.

On both occasions, Johannson said, a mentor took time to say, "Let's think this out" and helped her through how the new job would fit into her longer-term plans. "What are you going to gain out of this, and how do you get energy from it, when you may not be as excited as you were?" the mentors asked her. "It actually positioned me for that next role that was more senior."

"I think mentors have a great role of … kicking you in the pants to say, get out, you're too comfortable, move on," she said, adding that sometimes the move can be "three steps forward."

"Can you imagine, if you did that once a week as a woman?" Johannson said. "Sometimes I think about, at the end of the day, what did I do that day, that might have spurred someone."

Use small moments

Patterson likes to think of mentorships as "organic" in their growth, a succession of small moments that accrue over time. "You look for the moments on both sides of the equation," she said.

Patterson sits in on all board meetings for Wells Fargo, so in advance of meetings, she reaches out to people who are not in the meetings and checks in with them. She also debriefs with them later with advice on how to move forward, dropping in suggestions on how someone might remark or react to things that came out of the meeting.

"I get to see it all," she said of board meetings. "And so I share that with other people, and sometimes those turn into longer conversations, and sometimes they don't."

More than friends

Women tend to be a "little more relational," Cole said, so it's natural for some of them to develop mentorships over time into close friendships, which can be powerful too — but they can't lose sight of the prize, which is elevating each others' careers.

"Sometimes you find these things become like friendships, and then people are on your calendar, they just want to chat. That's great, but it could be even better to chat a little bit, and then we talk about you, and how I can help you," Cole said.

"You have to be intentional in your interactions with your mentors, either formal or informal mentors," she said. "Make sure … it's not just oh, we're just having coffee and talking about the kids — which we can do, as well. But you generally need a little bit more than that."

Know their success story, make a bet

"I'm really passionate about having a success story of anyone I'm mentoring," Johannson said. "I should know their success story by heart." This makes it easier for her to advocate for her mentees to others in the organization. "I can say, well, So-and-so did this, and this and this."

Mentees, Johannson said, should "make sure your mentor knows your success stories and that they're current, as in not five years ago. 'This is what I've done over the past six months. This is my accomplishment.' So that the mentor could be a better advocate on your behalf."

Cole added that "you actually have to know their interests, their aspirations, what they're working on, to be credible as an advocate." She encouraged mentors who don't work on the same team as their mentee, and thus don't observe their day-to-day work, to ask around about how the mentee is perceived. "Get the feedback from their peers, their managers, their teams, so that you can be helpful for them in their development."

Being the first to endorse someone can persuade others to take a chance on them too, Cole said. "If you're going to advocate for somebody credibly, you have to be willing to bet on them."

She recalled sitting in on conversations where someone said, "Oh yeah, this person is fantastic." But when it came time to fill a position, they were unwilling to hire the employee they had praised onto their own team. "I go, okay, help me understand," she laughed.

Timing is everything

Patterson said mentors should stay on top of the schedule by which important company decisions, especially personnel ones, are made, and stand ready to seize key moments in the year for putting their mentees forward for advancement.

"Know how the system works, which varies by company, of course," she said.

"And if the system means in April, we do succession planning, then make sure you're thinking about, in March, how am I going to talk about this person in succession planning? And how am I going to try to have them already on the list when we come into succession planning?"

Along the way, mentors can prime others for imagining someone in a bigger role later. "Somebody does something great? Call it out in the room where people don't know them as well, and [say] why it was great," Patterson said.

Consider secret mentors

"You have to balance using this language, 'the mentor,' because some folks think it's not great," Johannson said. "Oh, you're the mentor. So therefore, you're biased on that person because you're the mentor."

Making things official too soon can also put pressure on the mentor, because "if they're not successful, that probably says your mentoring wasn't very successful," she said. "So we need to be very, very careful on where and how you declare that you are a mentor for someone."

Sometimes, being a mentor on the sly was more effective for Johannson. "Obviously, HR systems know all, who's mentoring who," she said, but it still helped her gather information more effectively and learn what people really thought of her mentee.

"If you're less declarative, you actually can have all your antennae up and listen to what the opinion of everyone around you is about that person. And you can actually present an unbiased viewpoint, because you've heard everybody, to that person. And it's great feedback."

Stay connected

"I find it fascinating where people leave organizations, and then assume that that means all the relationships in those organizations have to end," Cole said. "Some of my best friends are at places that I had worked two, three jobs ago."

With social media, it's easy to stay connected with periodic updates, Cole said. "Send them relevant, interesting things. I love it when I get an article. Someone will say, 'Oh I know that you were interested in Formula 1 and this just happened, and isn't that exciting?'"

By staying top of mind, Cole said, the mentee has a chance to benefit from deeper mentorship "around leadership and progress and career and all the things we have to navigate as women."

Patterson agreed. "If you had a trusted relationship with someone, it's really worth continuing to invest in." In her own career, she said, "I sometimes hesitated in the past to keep up relationships if it wasn't somebody that I had been really close to. And I just got over it."

Patterson recalled occasions when she hadn't spoken to someone in a while and thought, "I don't know if the person really wants to be in touch or hear from me." But when she reached out, "the person was remarkably enthusiastic and lovely… wow, that person made me feel like they were so invested in the relationship."

In many cases, "I would think there's more onus on the mentees to keep up connection ties," Johannson said, adding that "both sides need to be equal partners" and it can't just be the mentor giving advice without equal motivation from the mentee.

She likes to offer mentees a chance to show their dedication to the relationship, by giving them something to report back on. "I always like to leave a, 'So what are you gonna do about this?' kind of statement," she said.

"It's actually something that's really motivational, for that person to go away and think. And that's usually how I'm able to discern who's going to be really in the long haul."